Walter Wink on Wesley Carr from 'Naming the Powers: The Language of
Power in the New Testament' '

The problem of theodicity has obsessed Jewish writers from the time of
the exile right down to the present... The ancient myth of the fall of the
"sons of God" in Gen.6:1-4 was enlisted to explain the presence of an evil
that emanates not from humanity alone but from something higher as well:
not divine, but transcendent...

'Carr, however, insists that the terms for power are used in Jewish literature
not to refer to evil spirits, demons, or Satan, but only to obedient angelic
powers whose activity and presence confirm to the status of Yahweh, that
the world into which the gospel came was not a world that longed for release
from powers, that the Christian message was not one of a cosmic battle in
which Christ rescued humanity from the domination of such forces.

Indeed, Carr states, there was nothing in Judaism from which such a myth
could be constructed. Further, Carr claims that there is no evidence for
a belief in demonic forces of any stature, apart from Satan, until the end
of the second century C.E., and nothing in Pauline writings that refers
to a battle between Christ and hostile powers.(A&P 174ff) 'But the evidence
points in almost the opposite direction from everything Carr asserts. Ecclus.
16:7 (which Carr dismisses as a book with "almost no reference" to angels
or demons) happens to contain one of the earliest indications of a new interest
in the myth of the Watchers and Giants. ... Wisdom of Solomon, which Carr
also dismisses with the same expression, alludes to the same myth in 14:6.
But by far the densest concentration of references to the fallen-angels
myth is found in the oldest sections of 1 Enoch. Add to that the evidence
from Jubilees, Daniel, and Qumran, and we have ample grounds for dismissing
Carr's belief that angels in Jewish literature are only good. ' [1] '

Recently Carr has challenged the assertion that the Powers are both good
and evil, arguing that all the Powers mentioned in Paul, and indeed the
whole New Testament, are good and that there is no evidence for a belief
in demonic forces of any stature, apart from Satan, until almost the end
of the second century. He is able to make this sweeping assertion only by
regarding Eph.6:12 as an interpolation and by a consistently tendentious
exegesis of every text that would seem to controvert his thesis. ' [2] '

Ephesians 6:12: For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but
against the principalities (archas), against the powers (exousias), against
the world rulers (kosmokratoras) of this present darkness, against the spiritual
hosts (pneumatika) of wickedness in the heavenly places. 'This text is the
locus classicus for the demonic interpretation of the powers; indeed no
other interpretation except the demonic is possible. Even Carr acknowledges
this and excises the verse from the text in order to get around its devastating
effect on his thesis that all the Powers are good angels. This desperate
expedient is taken without any support in the manuscript tradition and with
only a string of pseudo-problems fabricated as an excuse for surgery.' (A&P
104-10) [3]

________________________________________________

from 'Naming the Powers -The Language of Power in the New Testament.' Fortress
Press (1984) Excerpt [1] pp23-24. [2] p12. [3] p 84-85.

Walter Wink is Professor of Biblical Interpretation at Auburn Theological
Seminary in New York City.

See http://www.walterwink.com for more about Walter Wink.

A&P = Angels &Principalities (1981), by Wesley Carr.

Wesley Carr has a phD in Biblical Studies from the University of Sheffield,
and is a senior cleric in the Church of England. See http://wabbey-affairs.tripod.com
for more about Wesley Carr. theology > bible > powers > use of evidence,
theology of power